David A. Hoffman

John H. Watson, Jr. Lecturer on Law

Biography

Teaching

Since 2008, David has taught the Mediation course at Harvard Law School. In 1997 and 1998, he taught an HLS course on Advanced Mediation and Family Law Practice. David is also on the faculty of the Harvard Negotiation Institute, teaching a five-day mediation skills course with HLS Prof. Robert Mnookin, for the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. Before teaching at HLS, he was an Adjunct Professor at Northeastern University School of Law (teaching Alternative Dispute Resolution and Negotiation). He has also been the lead trainer in several mediation trainings for the American Bar Association.

Law and Dispute Resolution Practice

David is the founding partner of Boston Law Collaborative, LLC (“BLC”), where he serves as a mediator, arbitrator, and attorney. Prior to founding BLC, he was a litigation partner at the Boston law firm Hill & Barlow, where he practiced for 17 years and chaired the Alternative Dispute Resolution Practice Group. David also served for a year as staff counsel for the ACLU of Massachusetts.

David mediates and arbitrates cases at BLC ranging from business, employment, construction, intellectual property, and professional liability to divorce and other family-related disputes. BLC is a multi-disciplinary practice that includes lawyers, mediators, mental health professionals, and a financial professional. BLC is the winner of two national awards – the American Bar Association’s “Lawyer as Problem Solver Award” (2009), and the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution “Law Firm Award for Excellence in ADR” (2010).

David is past chair of the ABA Section of Dispute Resolution, and currently co-chairs the Section’s Collaborative Law Committee. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the International Academy of Mediators. He is also past chair of the Boston Bar Association’s ADR Committee and past president of the New England chapter of the Association of Conflict Resolution.

David is listed in the book “The Best Lawyers in America” in five categories (Mediation, Arbitration, Collaborative Law – Civil, Collaborative Law - Family, and Family Law Mediation). He has been listed in Boston Magazine's Super Lawyers Directory each year since the listing began.

Education

David is a graduate of Princeton University (A.B. 1970, summa cum laude), Cornell University (M.A. 1974, American Studies, all but dissertation completed toward Ph.D.), and Harvard Law School (J.D. 1984, magna cum laude), where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit for Hon. Stephen G. Breyer.